Red Wicket Market Farm is a small farm 25 minutes from downtown Columbus, Ohio, near Slate Run Metropark. Breeding Black Ameraucanas and Black Copper Marans to the Standard of Perfection.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

I can't wait for more baby chickies!

We're trying to be as sustainable as possible, so I'm working on a breeding project with our hens. We bought Iko, our new rooster, so we could hatch more hens that lay blue and green eggs. I also ordered several Easter Egger roosters and a few Barred Rock boys with our latest chick order. The trouble has been that we don't have any hens that want to "go broody;" that is, none of them show signs of wanting to hatch eggs.

Luckily, a friend of mine has an incubator and has offered to hatch some eggs for me. I put Iko and four hens in a separate pen, and I've been saving the eggs. We have two dozen fertile hatching eggs so far. Dennis should put the eggs in his incubator on Monday night, so we should have new chicks that were hatched from eggs laid by our chickens around Memorial Day. I can't wait.

On a side note, the baby roosters we bought as day-old chicks in March are just now learning to crow. It's the funniest thing you've ever heard--sometimes it just doesn't come out right and sounds like a squeeky wheel, a cat, or a hamster.